The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

FORT Charlotte MP Dr Andrew Rollins has said whether Free National Movement Leader Dr Hubert Minnis has what it takes to be prime minister will depend on if he can convince the party that he is the “most fit” to lead at a convention.

Dr Rollins’ comments follow an explosive council meeting last Thursday, where he was said to have teamed up with senior MPs to issue an ultimatum for an early convention.

The Tribune understands that six of the opposition’s ten MPs threatened to have Dr Minnis removed from the post by way of a petition to Governor General Dame Marguerite if he did not convene a conclave to decide the date of an early convention.

In a Facebook post on Saturday, Dr Rollins said he was prepared to “shake up the political establishment” as a new generation thinker in a nation that suffered from a lack of courage.

“If Dr Hubert Minnis has what it takes to be prime minister,” he wrote, “then he will weather this storm and prove himself the most fit to lead. If not, then the FNM will put the best man or woman in place to defeat the PLP and in the process deepen democracy in our beloved Bahamaland.”

He added: “Conventions are democracy in action and leaders must never be afraid to allow democracy to reign. I am indeed a new generation thinker. Fortune favours the bold!”

At Thursday’s meeting, a party insider claimed that Dr Rollins confronted Dr Minnis about issues he saw within the organisation.

The Tribune understands that the other FNM MPs that supported the ultimatum include: St Anne’s MP Hubert Chipman, Montagu MP Richard Lightbourn, North Eleuthera MP Theo Neilly, Central Grand Bahama MP Neko Grant and Long Island MP Loretta Butler-Turner.

Last year, it was reported that a group of FNM MPs had drafted a letter to the governor general, which said that they have lost confidence in their leader and wanted him removed as leader of the Official Opposition. However that letter was never sent.

If such a scenario took place, however, Dr Minnis would remain leader of the FNM.

“What ails our nation is that we are a people who lack courage,” Dr Rollins wrote on Facebook.

“We are afraid to take risks and do what we feel is right and necessary. We prefer to do what is convenient to our personal and financial well-being and say to hell with everyone else, as long as I get ‘mines’.

“You know what, if all I was made to do was to shake up the political establishment and inspire Bahamians to say enough of this bull, I want to have a say in who I want to be prime minister - understanding the immense power reposed in that office - and influence the direction of our nation, then I will do just that!”

He added: “It won’t be the PLP pushing Perry Christie on Bahamians and it won’t be the FNM denying Bahamians their right to have a say in the political process. “That is what I came into politics in the NDP to achieve.”

Before joining the PLP ahead of the 2012 general election, Dr Rollins and Bamboo Town MP Renward Wells were both members of the now dismantled National Development Party (NDP). Dr Rollins quit the PLP in June last year after other PLP members made attempts to block his contribution to the budget debate. At the time, he said it was clear that he was no longer wanted in the party. He joined the FNM five months later in November 2015.

Mutiny

Meanwhile, a senior FNM yesterday called the ultimatum from the MPs an “unfortunate game” that, if carried out, stood to irreparably damage the political careers of those involved.

The FNM, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Tribune that dissatisfied MPs should have worked within the party to garner support against Dr Minnis instead of alienating council members by threatening to hold the party to ransom. The party member suggested that if the proposed mutiny was carried out, the MPs would be expected to leave the party and form their own to select a new leader.

“It’s not worth it to destroy this party just to get this one man out, just follow the rules,” the senior FNM said. “There are clear rules, just do the work that influences the people and go to election. It’s not about you, this is a party.

“They’re really trying to bluff Minnis to make a rash decision to shoot himself in the head. If they wanted to move him they should have played the politics. There are 400-odd delegates that vote, and they don’t appreciate you going to the press, even the people who would not support Minnis are now reevaluating you.”

The source insisted that the party was embroiled in a “class war” between the elite members that supported former leader Hubert Ingraham, and the grassroots members that have been brought in under Dr Minnis. It was also suggested that the Progressive Liberal Party was intimately involved in the party’s fractured state.

“Minnis has a lot of ‘jungalis’ people behind him,” the source said, using the colloquial term for low class.

“You need them, but they can’t help you develop strategy. Then you have the elite class that were hanging with Ingraham. They think they are smarter and don’t believe they should mix with the grassroots people, who all of a sudden, they’re getting invited into the party.

“The party is changing, some say for the better, some say not, and as a result you got this cultural thing going on.”

The source added: “You need both sides, and despite all the noise we are bringing the party forward and without this kind of distraction we can have a great platform.”